P.M. Carpenter: "Sorry Mess of the Media" (Disses NYT's Kristof...)

[KoKo]

(A really good read!)

April 12, 2005
The sorry mess of the media P.M.Carpenter's Commentary

Now comes Kristof reeling from a Pew Research Center study that reports “confidence in the press has fallen sharply since 1990.” He surmises that the cause is a public perception of journalistic “arrogance,” though he protests the perception as “grossly unfair.”

Nevertheless, Kristof proposes the undeniable, which is that “print, radio and television all need to take much bolder steps to reconnect with the public.” And here’s one of the steps he suggests that journalism should take: “hire more red state evangelicals,” which would increase “our understanding of and ability to cover America today.”

Yes, that’s what he said, making the analogy that “when America was struck by race riots in the late 1960's, major news organizations realized too late that their failure to hire black reporters had impaired their ability to cover America.”

I can only conclude that if violent biker gangs began ravaging America’s countryside and this came as unexpected news to major media, Kristof, then, would lament the past underhiring of violent-biker journalists. So it might be wise to cover one’s bases and start hiring red-state, evangelical violent bikers.


But here’s another thought, one perhaps a bit more down to earth, that Kristof never entertains. He doesn’t acknowledge that the public’s sharply falling confidence in the media since 1990 correlates with the media’s extraordinary efforts to shed the “liberal” label – to go out of their way to prove their objectivity and balance by treating their conservative-accusers’ camp with kidd gloves and blistering liberalism at every turn; to balance perceived past sins by unbalancing the present’s reality.



http://pmcarpenter.blogs.com/p_m_carpenters_commentary/2005/04/the_sorry_mess_.html

[struggle4progress]

1. Do ya think that if we on the left adopted the tactics of Coulter, DeLay

... and Company, threatening violence, refusing to compromise under any circumstances, etc etc, that NK would suddenly ask the corporate media for more representation of leftwing views? Ha! He's be calling for our heads on pikes at the city gate.

What currently passes as "liberalism" in the corporate press is the sort of pleasant but mushy centrism that NK expounds: it's OK, as far as it goes, and it doesn't go very far. I don't think I can ever remember hearing a genuine leftist analysis of current events from the corporatists: this, of course, is unsurprising, because they are primarily interested in protecting their own business interests, which means that they won't have much patience for news and views that make them and their companies look bad.

I really don't believe NK is a whore: I suspect he's not quite bright enough to understand the structural role that he and other similar professional pettifoggers play in obscuring the power structure.

[KoKo]

2. Agree, and either he's not very bright

or has been warned into submission. Everything I've read recently by him seems very "mushy" as you say. But hiring evangelics to report?
That almost seems comical rather than serious. Like we don't have a whole Congress full of evangelicals and spokesman Falwell who manage to get their views out all over the cables and in the rest of the MSM. :eyes:

[ixion]

3. if progressives adopted those tactics, they'd have the SS at their door

in seconds flat.

Look how the SS took interest in a vapid art exhibit here lately, and yet you don't see them knocking on Coulter's door for suggesting (ad naseum) that conservatives should not hesitate to beat the crap out of a liberal, or that the NY Times should recieve fan mail from some conservative version of the Unabomber.

And yet, not only has she not been investigated, she continues to publish this pulp.


However, if you have a bumber sticker on your car, or wear a shirt that disparages our Glorious Leader, or paint a picture of the same, or make a comment in a chat room, you can expect a visit from your (not so) friendly neighborhood Gestapo.


This is the truth. And the so-called 'liberal' media doesn't seem to have a problem with it.

[Demit]

4. Yes. The media's "phony balancing game". Good commentary!

I wrote Kristof about his op-ed piece. In case he truly didn't understand the phenomenon of why the NYT--along with other MSM outlets--is losing the confidence of readers, I told him. In particular, I wanted to let him know how despicable the replacement of the goal of objectivity with "balance" is.

I don't think you get a job with the NYT if you are stupid, or not too bright. But that suggestion to hire evangelicals stuck in my craw too. I told him:

"...I'm tired of religion being shoved down my throat--the only good thing this forced dialog on religion has brought about is to show me that the evangelicals who are Dominionists want to take over the government, and they won't stop until they do. Will the NYT's new evangelical writers be discussing that?"


I hope he knows a little more now than he did.

[KoKo]

5. That sounds like a great letter. Thanks for posting. n/t

[Boo Boo]

6. The "media elites" and some Dems too

are really drinkin' the KoolAid with this pandering to the religious right crap.
:wtf:

Hasn't the Shiavo thing taught them anything? Ya know, like the overwhelming majority of Americans think the GOP panders to religious fanatics and don't like it?